K: Technical Analysis

Screen snap- shot by shot analysis of video

For my technical analysis I looked at 2 videos, Paolo Nutini's 'Candy' and Little Comets 'Isles'; the first a combination of performance and a strong narrative with the framing roughly half of each, atleast 30% meat shots, and the second a montage edited video with a similar cutting rate cutting on action but a variety of settingsand little performance or narrative; both however heavily illustrative and quirky creating an art antique style.

I closely analysed each video watching eagerly and noting every cut, transition, movement or particular framing and mise en scene I liked or thought were successful, measuring time of cuts and which type of shot was given preference. For example in Paolo's video, meat shots were used a great deal usually after a sequence of 3 cuts of the wedding narrative back to his performance present in this scene. In Little Comet's however they would usually have equal length clips cutting at different angles and distances of the same frame.

In 'Candy' I noticed the exaggerated use of POV shots, blurring and how well the video cuts on action according to the song. The video relies heavily upon non verbal language and facial expressions with an faster cutting rate with children to reflect their personalities, and where the track speeds up particularly in the climax revealing the sexual scene which is directly cut to fireworks and an emphasised performance by the artist. Closeup's are used frequently throughout the video. The video creates a sense of serenity with the opening shots, the white coloured props and the strong natural sunlight pouring in. The video tends to use meat shots cut to side angles of the artist rather than from straight on and cutting to his guitar, CU to MLS. The video cleverly varies it's depth of field, particularly shot 3 where hands clap in the foreground and characters or the artist in the background; cutting every 3 shots of the narrative back to the artist. Similarly to 'Isles' Paolo explores the sense of Italian culture through the props and costume as well as the directed non verbal language. The over the shoulder CU shot of the hands successfully displays the ring with the sense of eternity. The darkened lighting from the begging to the end of the video works nicely to show the progression of the day entering Paolo into the scene at the end, emphasising both colour and cutting rate to 2 scenes/second at the end, finishing softly as begun.

Similarly in 'Isles' non digetic sound is sucessfully combined with the pre recordedtrack from the beggining. The video opens with a slow cuttingrate, the first shot lasting3 seconds to reflectnot only the more melancholy opening of the song but the mise en scene present, the drifting soft flag moving in thewind, directly cutting from the MCU to a MLS of a different angle of the same shot lastly 9 seconds. High canted angles are repeatedly and sucessfully used showing no movement but compression of time allowing the audience to follow the fast moving clouds, or cars in a town (4.5 seconds). The mise en scene in this video acts as a signifier of the working class urban lifestyle opening with images such as broken glass,run down cafes and a woman eagerly holding her little money, a particular favorite shot of mine. The video tends to cut from static filming of moving images in the scene to tracking or movement with the camera of a still image eg the sea's movement or the petals blowing in the wind, a farely fast cutting rate also used here lasting roughly 1.5 seconds each. Handy cam is cleverly used with a tracking shot as it follows children and horses running and jumping as well as the use of blurring to a focused face at point 33 seconds. 'Isles' successfully sticks to its subject matter of presenting the strong British culture and the variety of personalities through the particular costume and props, juxtaposing harsh young thugs with aggressive nonverbal language holding a dolls head, similarly the video explores characters cutting from different angles and viewpoints repeatedly, each with strong eye contact. A meat shot is only used twice at the end of the video, similar to what we discussed introducing the artist with lip syncing, characters already present. Two favourite shots at the end of the video (2.43 seconds) are the use of blur to focus from the foreground, the face subject matter to the run down street behind and lastly the tracking shot to the left at a side angle of the arcade and bikes riding in a town at night.

From this video I can conclude it tends to cut from different angles to explore characters further, particularly from CU to MLS and the successful use of the prop mask we intended on using (see 1.37) cutting from MCU to ELS to real life animals. Also the successful use of compression of time speeding up cars and weather juxtaposing to the expansion of time with horses "running wild".

By analysing these videos closely I was able to get a real sense of the production of the videos and how it is nesecarry to have a large amount of footage; also that the footage must cut to the beat in the track and that matching the lip syncing is vital. Both videos display dominant ideologies and the stereotyped presentations of British cities, run down an urban or Italian weddings, flamboyant and beautiful. Neither use the voyeuristic presentation of women but the sense of equality among all.